Danganronpa: Balancing Act
by Nickie Moon
Summary: Nina Masami is about to be a student of Hope's Peak Academy along with 15 other kids, but when a strange event has them all mysteriously whisked off on some school camping trip, it turns out they won't be attending any classes at Hope's Peak after all. According to the headmaster of the school, instead they're going to participate in a fight for their lives. [Danganronpa AU]
1. Prologue Part 1

I was standing before Hope's Peak Academy. No, Hope's Peak was standing before I.

I am Nina Masami, normal high schooler who mostly fits in with the crowd. I hadn't really done anything noteworthy to gain attention from others in the past, nor had I ever been able to do anything amazing in my personal life. But somehow, this prestigious school, Hope's Peak, had beckoned me to attend it nonetheless for a talent that I had that even I didn't know. As the school faculty also researches talents, I was lucky enough to have something they wanted to look into.

Hope's Peak Academy, the exclusive, government-sanctioned school accepting only students with exceptional abilities. It's goal? It's to raise hope for the nation. Anybody attending there is guaranteed success in life if they manage to graduate.

To attend, a person must be a high schooler and must excel at their field of expertise. It didn't hold any entrance exams, as the school believes that exams are meaningless for the purpose of the school. Instead, the school itself scouts for its students, so you must be invited to attend.

Somehow, in some way, I'd managed to get there. I'd become the source of envy for other high schoolers and may have lost some friends in the meantime, but this was a place where my life was going to take a meaningful turn.

I took a deep breath, stopped playing nervously with my long, silvery hair, and walked through the gates, approaching the main doorway of the school with a pounding heart. I'd always thought I had such a plain, boring life. Things would finally change, I'd finally be able to say I'd made some kind of accomplishment, that I'd change at least something for the world.

I passed through the doorway full of hope, but it quickly dissolved with a wave of nausea. I didn't understand, and continued trying to get further into the school. I may have tried propping myself up on a wall, but honestly, I really didn't remember what happened afterwards.

Next thing I knew, I was drowsily awakening to a feeling of being bounced. I opened my eyes slowly, and saw only blackness. Panicking, I sat straight up, until the realization came to me that my sweater's hood had simply gone over my eyes. I pushed it back and started with making sure I didn't freak out, by taking breaths.

Somebody snickered beside me, causing me to start, as I didn't expect to be close to somebody else after what had just happened.

"I mean, um, are you ok?" a tan individual with wavy black pigtails asked, trying to cover up the fact that she'd just been laughing, most likely at how silly my hood must've looked on my face.

"No. I'm not okay." I said a bit loudly, "I passed out as soon as I entered Hope's Peak, and now I'm expected to believe that I've magically appeared on a-" I looked around, realizing I had no idea where I'd appeared after blacking out. "A bus?"

The feeling of bouncing came from bumps in the road. I was currently sitting on an ugly, roan red seat and to the left of me was the bus aisle. The tan-skinned girl to the right of me was next to the window, avoiding eye contact. I must've scared her.

"Hey, sorry, something really weird just happened to me a minute ago," I said in a calmer voice than earlier. "I'm Nina Masami, by the way, attending the school so the staff could research my talent."

"Oh, that's weird, me too!" replied the tan-skinned girl with the messy pigtails, turning her attention back to me. "I went to walk in the school, and got sick, and I woke up in the bus while everyone else was asleep…"

So we'd both experienced the same thing. How could two people experience the exact same event with the exact same circumstances?


	2. Prologue Part 2

Before pigtails could continue and tell me her name, a dark-skinned boy looked over the tacky seats in front of us.

"Really? That happened to me and my new buddy here too. Creepy shit man," he said to us.

"I'm not your 'buddy,' okay?" a seemingly annoyed voice replied from next to him.

"Well, anyway, my friend here had the same thing happen. I'm thinking, maybe without realizing it, it happened to all of us at the same time!" the dark-skinned boy continued.

"That wouldn't make sense, I was sure nobody was standing next to me when I was about to walk in." I broke in.

"It seems we're in a strange situation indeed," a pale guy wearing a tiny hat on the seats across the aisle replied. "This happened to me as well."

"Nice hat," the dark-skinned boy said, grinning. "What's it for?"

"Thank you for the compliment. But, I am surprised you don't recognize it, or I, for that matter."

"Wait, I do!" a completely new voice piped up, "Oh my gosh, you're Takeishi Kasai, guest animator for an entire episode of Apple Paradise Grove! I know that hat anywhere!"

More and more people were popping in with comments and affirmations that they'd experienced the same thing as I did. I was losing track of everyone, as I could only refer to them by some trait they had. Without knowing their names, it was hard to try and ask a specific person about what had happened to them.

"Wait, everyone just hold on a minute." I butted in, "shouldn't we all introduce ourselves quickly? Nobody knows each other yet."

Everyone grew silent for a minute as everyone got up despite the bus's constant bouncing. I could tell an awkward silence was just about to set in, but the dark-skinned boy with the curly black hair quickly denied it.

"Fine, I guess I'm first. I'm David Awadi. I was chosen by the school for being the Ultimate Rapper, or, if you please, the Ultimate Rap God." he said, finishing with a smile.

Next to speak was the pale guy with the tiny hat and the ponytail. "As some of you may know, I'm Takeishi Kasai," began the guy with the small hat, "I was chosen by the school for being the Ultimate Animator."

"Shame on you guys for not knowing! He only animated for the best cartoon in all existence!" an enthusiastic voice sounded, coming from a chubby, rosy-skinned girl in front of Takeishi. "I'm Tsukiko Yuuna, by the way. I'm the Ultimate Cartoon Fanatic, but I personally like to use the title of Ultimate Super Cartoon Fangirl!"

"Um..." began the girl beside me, "My name is Midori Akamine. I'm the Ultimate Construction Worker," she said shyly.

"Oh! No wait, I wanted to keep the thing going about people wanting to alter their titles!" a pale, blue-haired girl wearing her hair in a fishtail exclaimed. "I'm Saika Iseri, the Ultimate Cat Caretaker, but as I don't want my title to sound dumb and mainstream, please call me the Ultimate Cat Lady!"

As if to emphasize, before anybody could reply, a loud ripping sound was heard, and a hairless cat climbed up her gray, poncho-like sweater so that it could then perch itself onto her shoulder.

"And, I do suppose I should mention my sphynx cat, Captain Fluffycoat. His name's supposed to be ironic."

The cat made no comment, as it was an animal that couldn't talk. It simply began licking its back, something I didn't know hairless cats did.

"Yuck," said a spiky green-haired, pale guy. "What an ugly thing. Anywho, I'm Yohachi Noda, and I don't expect any of you dags to talk to me."

Most of us looked at each other, most likely inquiring what a dag was. Yohachi sat down in the bus seat even if everyone else was still standing.

"Oh, and, I paint. Didn't recall the white-haired bimbo saying we had to say why we were here."

Another brief silence set in, but this time somebody broke it quickly, not giving me time to be offended at being called a bimbo, whatever that insult meant.

"Ah, he's not exactly unconfident once he speaks, hm?" a dark red-haired, rosy-skinned girl wearing a large purple bow to hold a ponytail said. "I'm Tsuna Mae, the Ultimate Pole Dancer. I'm pleased to meet you all."

"None of you better think of anything indecent! Don't deny that's what you're all thinking. I know all the ins and outs of society," butt in a dark-skinned girl with a brown, curly weave shaved on the right side and dyed pink on the ends. "My name's Arei Miyoshi, the Ultimate Social Rights Activist."

I hadn't noticed, but one person had still been sitting down. The individual stood up, surprising us all with his buff figure and pale skin that looked a lot like a foreign exchange student's, skin being paired with blue eyes.

"And I'm Kenneth Hallvard, Ultimate Plumber, I'm an exchange student" he said quickly, as if not really interested with knowing about all the people around him.

Like Yohachi, he sat back down in the seat. Over the seat, I could see him turn and face the window, ignoring us all.

"I suppose I should continue this before the stage of awkwardness sets in," a very tall girl with long black hair filled with streaks of different complimenting colors and tan skin began. "I am Saori Koyama, the Ultimate Orchestral Conductor," she paused to gesture towards a similar-looking girl, except with medium dark brown hair. "And this is my sister, Namiko."

Namiko was nervously fidgeting with the sleeves of her light blue sailor uniform, too shy to face us with her own eyes.

"Ah, nice to meet all of you of which I heard your introductions!" an enthusiastic boy with the left half his ebony hair shaved said. "Which would be only Saori and Namiko. Nah, I'm just kidding. I heard everyone's! I'm Kaede Shouta, the amazing Ultimate Hypnotist!"

I'm sure everyone in the bus had a skip of the heart when he said he hadn't heard anybody introduce. But, he had taken it back quickly enough for us to enjoy the joke.

"Second-last yo." a creamy-beige skinned guy with light brown hair with faint green highlights said. "I'm Kaori Oda. Good to meet everyone, I'm the Ultimate Sprinter."

"Okay finally it seems to be my turn." a long brown haired boy with warm, beige skin quickly broke in after Kaori's introduction. "We need to get to the bottom of all this as soon as possible, so I'll be quick. I'm Kiyohisa Takano, Ultimate Ghost Hunter. Okay, we're done, right?"

Everyone was just about to nod, but we hadn't noticed that apparently, somebody was next to Saika. As a large bump came by, everyone who was standing either fell back into their seat or gripped it tightly to keep their balance. Nobody fell but one person, a male student with dark purple hair who tipped from his chair, apparently still asleep, and fell into the aisle.

"Right. You," Saori pointed at me, dark green eyes calm. "You should help him up. You're closest next to Saika, and it'd be awkward for her to sit him back in the chair," she told me, almost like an order.

I didn't quite follow the reasoning, but she honestly sounded like she knew what she was talking about. All eyes were on me, as I didn't start with sitting him up, instead attempting to awaken him.

"Um, hello? Are you awa-"

I was quickly cut off by the bus's sudden stop. I let out a shout, and then tumbled diagonally, right at the corner of a chair. My head smacked the surprisingly hard corner, and I could only see blurry images of people around me. The last thing I saw were a pair of violet eyes. I was pretty sure nobody had violet eyes, who was that?

**Author's Notes**

I got two comments like I asked for in the last chapter. This time, how about four (comments, favs, etc.)? If you want to see more of this story, better spread the word around to people you know!


	3. Prologue Part 3

Next thing I knew, I was staring up at a wooden ceiling with a lightbulb hooked onto a ceiling fan. I took a few minutes, looking around at my surroundings. I was in some kind of log cabin, and was lying in a surprisingly comfortable bed with a window with shut blinds to the left of me.

The bed was laden with a light brown comforter, and at the foot of it were small bottles of shampoo and a bar of soap. Strangely, there was also a case full of pens and pencils. I wondered what these would be used for, as there wasn't any paper around as far as I could see.

To confirm my suspicions, I groggily rose from the bed and headed across a green carpet to a dresser with drawers. I opened them with a bit of difficulty, but there was nothing inside any of them but some clothing that I didn't recall putting away, or packing, for that matter.

To the right of me was also a wall with a door in it. Against the wall was a light brown couch matching the bed sheets (not the pillows, though, as when I looked back at them I noticed they were green like the carpet), but I didn't give it much thought as I passed it to get to the door. I opened the door to find a new hallway with the same green carpet as before. On the walls were a few paintings of natural landscapes, but what interested me more were the new entryways around the hall.

One led to a simple bathroom where the shower, bathtub, and toilet were the same kind of ugly yellowish-brown with one light brown bath mat on the tiled white floor. Losing interest, I fiddled with the second door's handle to find it locked. I shrugged, and then headed to a pair of doors that seemed evidently like the exits.

I meant to go out them, but I heard a door creak behind me. I turned around to see Midori, the tan-skinned girl with the black pigtails, dark violet eyes looking surprised. Oh, wait, dark violet? I wondered if she was the one that I'd seen after I'd fallen in the bus.

"Oh, you're awake. Um, you fell, so I, um, carried you with the help of Saori Koyama there and brought you here. Are you feeling okay?" the girl asked, though she didn't stay far from the door.

"Oh, thank you, I feel fine." I said politely.

"Oh, and I hope you don't mind, but I told everybody your name for you because you didn't get to, but you told me," she smiled a bit upon finishing.

"That's fine. But, where is everyone right now?"

"Most of us are either checking out our cottages or exploring the place. I already did both, though. There's not much to look at. There was a lodge-type thing where the bus dropped us off, and inside there's just a recreation room and the cafeteria. There's also a convenience store connected to our cottages by a path. But, um, that's it."

"That's it?" I inquired. "Any leads on our situation? What about some kind of teacher or tour guide?"

"There was a voice that told us to get off the bus…" Midori continued explaining. "It was weird and happy, kinda out of place, but we don't really know who it was."

"Hm… Oh!" I just remembered another detail. "What about the purple-haired guy? Was he okay?"

"He woke up because you kicked him in the head when you fell," she was smiling, "When he did, he told us he was taking a catnap after Kiyohisa introduced because the introductions were boring. Pretty rude, if you ask me."

"What was his name?" I asked, noticing I'd gotten closer to Midori to hear her quiet voice better.

"He said he was Ichiro Kimura, and the Ultimate Meteorologist. Then, he just started reading some red book he had until the voice I mentioned before came on."

Midori seemed like a strange type. A few minutes before, she was very hesitant to talk to me, but now all of a sudden she's rambling away as soon as I showed that I was listening.

"All the cottages have two people's pictures on them. They're all weird and pixely, also like mini versions of us or something."

I simply nodded, but my interest was piqued by what could be outside. In my excitement to investigate, I was about to completely overlook something that would turn out important, as suddenly, one of the pictures on the wall turned on.

Except it wasn't a picture at all, it was a green monitor.

"Whoo! It's great to get this thing finally working. Yikes!" the voice coming from a monitor filled with static said. "No picture? Come on!" it said, and a few banging noises were heard, followed by a sudden stop in static and showing of a clear picture. "Alright! No need to worry, it's all working now!"

Midori came running to look at the monitor before I could turn around to look.

"That's it! That was the voice from the bus!" she exclaimed while the voice had a brief pause.

I finally got to take a look at the picture, and saw something honestly just weird. On the screen was a bear. I'm not kidding. There was a bear on the screen. It looked like some kind of mascot costume, with rounded feet and ears and a distinct round head and body. Except this one did have a strange appearance. The left half of the bear was all white, with a dotted black eye and a cute, small smile. On his belly was a white circle with a belly button in the shape of an X.

This would all be well and good if the other half of him were the same. But the left half was like the right half's polar opposite. It was black as night, with an eye resembling a bat's wing, glowing red. Right underneath was a half of a large, toothy grin glistening with malice.

"Welcome, all of you Ultimates, to Monokuma Lake Campground Resort! I do hope you've all settled in well with your roommates and have visited the facilities! Now, if you could all make your way to the lodge for supper, we will all finally take a look at the rules, regulations, and also the purpose of Hope's Peak's school camping trip. I should also mention that a very special present will be waiting for each of you once you find your seats in the cafeteria!"

The monitor then turned off, leaving us both confused. I was sure I wasn't the only one, as none of us had heard of anything like being due for a camping trip as soon as we'd get to Hope's Peak.

"Oh, that must have just been some kind of mascot, and this must be an entrance ceremony. I'm sure everything's going to be fine, Nina," Midori said, sensing my worry. "Oh, wait…" her expression changed. "Shouldn't you fix your hair? It's sticking up funny."

I ignored her remark about my one uncontrollable piece of hair and opened the doors to the cottage. It was probably a bit inconsiderate of me, but I briskly walked off so I could get to the bottom of what this situation was all about.

"Nina! Nina wait! Sorry! Your hair is really nice!" Midori was saying, running to catch up to me.

I most likely seemed ticked about the hair, but really I was ticked about the whole situation. I stopped in my tracks, waiting for Midori to catch up to me. She was panting as she got next to me, obviously not a strong runner.

"Okay," she took a breath. "I'm sorry, your hair looks really nice with um, your brown eyes? That was uncalled for, I get it…"

"It's not that, I didn't mean to seem angry." I explained. "It's just, the whole situation. I seriously am feeling like punching that black-and-white mascot from the screen, you know?"

"Oh, come on! If you ignore the red eye and the giant smile, he's actually kind of cute," Midori said, a smile returning to her lips. "It's just an animatronic, I'll bet the headmaster in person will be at the cafeteria and everything will be fine."

I smiled back, and we continued walking in silence past the other cottages, all the way to a path that went under huge, leafy trees for only a minute before coming out to a more open area. In the space was a building similar to the cabins, also wooden with a green roof and windows framed white.

Upon entering the lodge, there was a small area full of different kinds of shoes, and above the shoes laden on the floor was a sign, reading: "Please leave your shoes under this sign."

I complied, and slipped off my sneakers, walking into the lodge with just socks. I'd been to a camp, which required this, once before in elementary school. The teachers explained to us it kept the lodge cleaner to wear socks.

There were also coat hangers, but those were empty. Presumably, nobody wanted to take off something they wore that was part of their outfit used for their public image. This was proven to me as Midori passed straight through the doors without taking off the orange vest she wore over some yellow shirt underneath.

Not wanting to be weird, I kept my light blue sweater on and followed Midori through the doors to the cafeteria. Everyone was already there, most likely due to the fact that our cottage was the furthest from the lodge and closest to the convenience store.

Everyone was sitting down, eating. I looked around and eventually noticed signs that pointed to some trays on the left end of a counter. Food was behind large, glass cases. The camp I'd gone to had a similar setup where you had to take the tray and collect a plate, then cafeteria ladies would pile the food on your plate. Seeing no cafeteria ladies, I decided to take my tray to the door of the kitchen.

Upon opening the door, I was greeted by some kind of flying robot. It looked like a skull wearing a hairnet, and I was about to laugh if it weren't for what happened next.

"Unauthorized student detected, now engaging safety procedures," it said, as I stood frozen while two pairs of guns on its sides, just like in sci-fi movies, cocked. "Hold still, student of Hope's Peak Academy."

* I didn't get the amount of comments and favorites that I wanted last time, so now I'll just ask for two more of anything by two different people who haven't already commented. If you want to see the last part, spread the story around! *


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